Masala for Homemade Chai | Masala Tea- Freeze & Store

While most people are familiar with the masala chai spice mix available in powder form, this kind of fresh spice mix is new to me. Someone I met recently gave me this idea, which made me go wow and I finally got around to implementing it.

I’ll tell you how this is a super useful kitchen hack for me. First thing in the morning, pounding ginger gets too noisy. I can’t pluck the lemongrass because my garden is still dark at 5.30am. And, I’m too lazy to deal with cardamom.

So here’s how this ready masala chai cube goes – grind up some fresh ginger, lemon grass greens (called chai ki patti in some parts of India) and a good handful of green cardamoms until you get a coarse paste. To save this paste, use my ice-tray kitchen hack and freeze into single chai worth cubes using some water. 1 cube of this fresh masala mix cube can be boiled along with water until the spices steep in the water, then add tea and milk to make a refreshing cup of chai.

Feel free to add your favourite spices such as cinnamon, clove, pepper and even other herbs like Tulsi or mint. This freezing tip came to me from Nikhil of Nonchalant Gourmand when he saw my post on Instagram. If you don’t want to freeze it, make half the quantity and store in airtight container in the fridge and use a clean dry spoon to measure out masala when making chai. I’m presuming this will stay for 2 weeks.